Lateral buying swells FY18 oil capex to $1.11 trillion till February

Gross figure less impressive if HPC & GSPC investment by ONGC is excluded

Officially, capital spending by the 11 public sector units (PSUs) in the petroleum sector was an impressive Rs 1.11 trillion in the first 11 months of this financial year.

Yet, more than a third of this is not new capital expenditure (capex) but represents shifts of equity between PSUs.

The government’s capex target for the sector in 2017-18 (the financial year ends this Saturday) was about Rs 860 billion; hence, this has been far exceeded. The bulk of this comprised Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)’s Rs 677 bn; the company’s target for FY18 was Rs 300 crore.

Yet, almost